Fine Could Increase Use Of Seat Belts

But now lawmakers have designed a new strategy to prod Florida`s drivers into buckling their seat belts -- a $20 fine.

On Tuesday, with a few exceptions, drivers and front-seat passengers will be required by law to use seat belts. Those who don`t can be fined as of Jan. 1, 1987, following a six-month grace period.

Seat-belt proponents are hoping the threat of financial loss will succeed where common sense failed.

``I think a lot of people will buckle up just to keep from getting a traffic ticket,`` said Lt. Max Shell of the Florida Highway Patrol. ``I know a lot of people just don`t think about seat belts. Well, I think about them every day. I`ve seen the statistics and the pictures of what happens when you don`t wear one. I`m alive today because of a seat belt.``

Less than two years ago, there was no such thing as a mandatory seat-belt law. But since New York paved the way in December 1984, 25 states and the District of Columbia have enacted their own laws.

The rush to pass seat-belt laws may be a result of the dramatic decreases in injuries and death rates in states that require use of the belts. In states that have had the law for at least a year, traffic deaths are down anywhere from 11 to 26 percent.

Under Florida`s law, all front-seat passengers must wear seat belts. But there are exceptions.

Belts do not have to be used by passengers in school or commercial buses, farm vehicles, motorcycles or mopeds, trucks that weigh more than 5,000 pounds and people who are delivering newspapers. People with medical conditions that would be adversely affected by seat belts also can be exempted.

People whose cars are not equipped with seat belts don`t have to wear them, either, as long as the car was built before 1968. All cars manufactured since then were required by federal law to have seat belts installed. Trucks have been equipped with belts since 1972.

Drivers also are responsible for making sure all front-seat passengers 15 and under are buckled up. The driver can be fined if someone under 16 is not using a seat belt. Front-seat passengers 16 and older are responsible to buckle themselves up, and can be fined if they don`t.

Otherwise law-abiding drivers who don`t fasten their seat belts cannot be ticketed by police. Officers are not permitted to pull a driver over just for failing to use a seat belt. Tickets can only be issued if a motorist is stopped for another offense.

``There`s a little psychology involved,`` he said. ``If people are out there speeding, they`ll know if they get stopped they`re going to get two tickets instead of one if they`re not buckled up.``

There is little controversy over the merits of using seat belts. While some drivers express fears that a seat belt could trap them in a burning car, studies show that belted drivers have a much better survival rate -- even in fiery crashes.

Researchers at the University of North Carolina studied the results of 3.5 million collisions over a 10-year period and found that people wearing seat belts were far more likely to survive than those not wearing them.

``It`s a lack of education,`` Shell said. ``A lot of people are convinced it`s safer to be thrown out of a car. People say they don`t wear a seat belt because they`re afraid of going into a canal. If I knew I was going into a canal I`d buckle up, because I`d have a better chance of surviving the impact. You may have one case in a thousand where a seat belt was at fault.``

Since Jan. 1, eight people have died after their cars plunged into canals in Palm Beach County, Shell said. None was wearing seat belts.

Despite the evidence, only 28 percent of Florida`s drivers were wearing seat belts when the American Automobile Associationconducted a survey in April.

The people least likely to wear seat belts are teen-agers and police officers, Shell said.

``Teen-agers are the hardest groups to convince beacuse they think they`re going to live forever,`` he said. ``I know when I was that age I didn`t even think about death.``

With police officers, it`s more of a macho thing, Shell said. ``A lot of them have the Wyatt Earp syndrome. They think they`re the greatest drivers. A lot of them say they can`t get out of the car fast enough if they`re wearing a seat belt.``

Estimates on how many people will actually comply with the seat-belt law are conservative. Florida`s Insurance Commissioner Bill Gunter said that if 50 percent of the drivers and passengers used seat belts, it would be a big step forward.

Gunter said as many as 500 lives will be saved and 600 injuries avoided each year if half the state`s drivers buckle up.

Buckling up also will save dollars, proponents say. A Florida State University study estimated that up to $300 million in medical costs and lost work time will be spared if 70 percent of the drivers comply with the seat- belt law.